The prior art includes various wheeled devices that are worn or otherwise attached to a human foot. Common examples include roller skates, in-line skates, roller skis and the like. Various other, less common, devices also exist.
Conventional roller skates have a wheel arrangement consisting of two paired wheels. This arrangement provides relative stability, but is undesirably bulky and heavy and offers limited steerability or turnability.
In-line skates tend to be faster and lighter than conventional roller skates, and they have grown in popularity. Turning an in-line skate is often achieved by (1) physically lifting the skate and placing it down in a new line-of-direction (sometimes stepping over the other skate) or (2) leaning in a desired direction and effectively “pulling” the skate in that direction. In the latter turn, the front wheel is pulled into the desired new direction and the skate effectively “slips” across the skating surface to achieve the turn. Some in-line skates are configured with center wheels that are lower than the front and back wheels. These “rocker” skates may be easier to turn yet are less stable.
Other in-line skates or roller ski type devices have been developed that offer some degree of turning, though the degree of turning tends to be limited and the turning mechanism bulky, heavy and/or complicated, etc. Examples include the devices found in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 6,241,264; 5,732,957; and 4,382,605; and European Patent No.: 355,897; among others.
These “turnable” skate devices typically turn in response to weight displacement, i.e., the user shifts his or her weight causing the wheels to turn. These devices do not operate by turning or pivoting the foot. It is a disadvantageous limitation of prior art wheeled skates that they do not provide a mechanism for turning the skate in response to turning of a user's foot.
Furthermore, devices such as those discussed in the '264 and '957 patents have a wheel located on one end that turns and a wheel on the other end that functions as the pivot point of the turn. Hence, the pivot point for the turn is located before or after the “foot coupling” region of the skate, and not under the skate as it is, for example, with ice skates.
It is desired to provide a wheeled skate that more closely approximates the ice skating experience, e.g., that turns in response to a user turning his or her foot. It is also desired to provide a wheeled skate that has an underfoot centered turning mechanism that facilitates turning in a rapid and efficient manner. Furthermore, it is desired to provide such features in a wheeled skate arrangement that is lightweight and non-bulky.